Apple likely to acquire music recognition app Shazam

San Francisco: Apple is reportedly acquiring popular music recognition app Shazam for a likely sum of nearly $400 million, media reported.

According to a report in TechCrunch on Saturday, the iPhone maker may officially announce the deal on Monday.

"One source describes the deal as in the nine figures; another puts it at around $401 million. We are still asking around," the report said.

Built by Shazam Entertainment Ltd, a British app development company, Shazam is used by hundreds of millions of people each month to instantly identify music that`s playing and see what others are discovering.

Shazam, that reports over one billion downloads, lets music lovers identify any song, TV show, film or advert in a jiffy, by listening to an audio clip or a visual fragment.

Launched in 1999 as an SMS code service, Shazam reportedly made $54 million in revenues in the fiscal year 2016.

In the world of music, Apple has made some other acquisition as well, like buying Beats for $3 billion in 2014 which became the basis for Apple Music.

Shazam CEO Rich Riley and Apple were yet to comment.

Shazam has partners like venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins and London`s DN Captial, plus content providers Sony Music, Universal Music and Access Industries (owner of Warner Music).